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Monday, June 19, 2017

Sri
Lanka, despite her soaring developmental ambitions, spends less than 1%
of her national budget on research and development, an anomaly which
was highlighted at the recently concluded symposium, Science and
Technology for Society Sri Lanka 2016. Addressing the gathering, Prof.
Ajith de Alwis, warned that “Sri Lanka is paying a heavy price in
overlooking science in decision making.”[i]

And this symposium on science began with a two minute video on religious
observances, a piece of tragicomedy symbolic and symbiotic of Sri
Lanka’s dangerous romance with politicised religion and her willing
embrace of superstition.

The Buddha in Samaññaphala Sutta categorised astrology, demonology et al as ‘animal arts’[ii] (The
extensive list mentioned in the Sutta includes palmistry, reading omens
and signs, interpreting celestial events and dreams, making predictions
for state officials, chasing demons, casting auspicious times,
predicting life spans, forecasting political or natural events and
casting horoscopes). But in Sri Lanka, said to be repository of the
Buddha’s teachings in their purest form, Sinhala-Buddhists treat
astrological predictions with the reverence that adherents of theistic
faiths accord to the words of their particular god or prophet.

In the second decade of the twenty first century, it is not uncommon to
hear of pious Sinhala-Buddhists dying because they threw ordinary
commonsense to the four winds and obeyed the orders of an astrologer, an
exorcist or some other practitioner of ‘animal arts’. The latest such
example comes not from a rural backwater, but from the urbanised
Piliyandala, a town close to Colombo. An artist died after drinking a
concoction given to him by an exorcist as a cure for a skin ailment[iii].

The exorcist has been arrested. It is to be hoped that he will be
charged formally and tried in a court of law. Perhaps the publicity
garnered by such a trial would make at least some Lankans – including
the country’s current leaders – understand the idiocy of trusting one’s
future and one’s life to dabblers in ‘animal arts’.

Most Lankan leaders were slavish believers of stars and their untutored
interpreters; but none of them went as far to use state power and
resources to reward or persecute astrologers as the Rajapaksas did.
Astrology always played a prominent role in the private lives of most
people including most politicians. But under Rajapaksa rule, astrology
was accorded a prominent place in the public sphere as well.

Not only did astrology play a prominent role in persuading Mahinda
Rajapaksa to hold a presidential election two years ahead of time.
Everything he did during that election, from the moment he handed over
his nomination papers to the Election Commissioner from an auspicious
side, was dictated to a large extent on the advice of astrologers.
During the election campaign, astrologers played the part which is
accorded to opinion polling and statistical analyses in less
superstitious countries. The state television, for instance, aired many
election forecast programmes featuring astrologers, an execrable
practice the private TV stations were quick to follow.

One of the most satisfactory outcomes of the defeat of the Rajapaksas
was the relegation of astrology from the public to the private sphere.

Recent media reports indicate that the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration might have taken a step back to that silly past.

Past in the Present

The Rajapaksas made history when they got an astrologer arrested for
making a prediction which did not fit in with their agenda. Chandrasiri
Bandara, an astrologer known for his pro-opposition views, made an
unfavourable prediction, the regime reacted with ferocity. Mr. Bandara
was arrested, taken to the CID and grilled.

This unprecedented act of repression had its desired effect, in the
short term. Mr. Bandara came out of custody in the safe guise of a
born-again Rajapaksa man. During the run up to 2015 Presidential
election Mr. Bandara predicted a resounding Rajapaksa victory and
pledged to shoot himself if proven wrong – on live TV.

Vijitha Rohana Wijemuni, an astrologer known for his anti-government
views, has been summoned to the CID over a prediction he made about the
future of President Maithripala Sirisena. (According to his Wikipedia
page, Mr. Wijemuni rose to national prominence as the naval rating who
hit Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi with his bayonet. He subsequently
contested elections from Sihala Urumaya)[iv].

While violent crimes are rampant, the Criminal Investigations Department
is busy chasing astrologers – because political leaders still regard
the prattling of astrologers as truth and nothing but the truth.

Fortunately 2016 is not 2009. The current government is not immune to
superstitious cures or dictatorial solutions. But thanks to changes of
post-January 2015, the space for such cures and solutions has shrunk.

In 2009, the astrologer was arrested and grilled. In 2016, the
astrologer informed the CID that he has already given one statement, has
no intention of giving another and will complain to the Human Rights
Commission if harassed any further.

In 2009, the astrologer came out of custody with his political
sympathies changed from anti-Rajapaksa to slavishly pro-Rajapaksa. In
2016, the astrologer has not changed his political colour or deleted the
video which drove the CID out of its collective senses.

That difference is due to the democratic transformation brought about by the regime change of January 2015.

Sri Lanka is not a paradise of good governance. But it is indubitably a
better place for its people today than it was under the Rajapaksas.

In 2013, Sri Lanka was one of the saddest places on earth, according to
the (UN-sponsored) World Happiness Report. Of the 156 countries rated,
Sri Lanka ranks 137.

A long way more to go, but the direction is the right one; more advances are possible, unless economics intervene.

The Rajapaksas placed absolute faith on superstition and none on
science. That is why they paid no attention to one of the earliest
warning signs about growing discontent in their own electoral base.

As the CPA’s Top line survey revealed, in 2011, a mammoth 70% of
Sinhalese thought that the general economic situation will get better in
the next two years. In 2013 only 38.5% of Sinhalese thought that the
general economic situation will improve in the next two years – a
decrease of 45%, in just two years.

Had the Rajapaksas heeded such findings instead of clinging to astrological predictions, they may not have lost in 2015.

The current government can launch any amount of propaganda blitzes about
the necessity of the VAT bill; it can scream to high heavens declaring
that the VAT increases will not affect ordinary people. But people will
feel the pinch, when they make a purchase, take a call or channel a
doctor.

And they will begin to lose hope, as they did between 2011 and 2013.

This government can make its share of mistake and survive. But if it
repeats the mistakes of the Rajapaksas as well, the future will be like
the past we escaped from in January 2015.

Take two steps forward and one step back, you can still head to the
future. Take one step forward and two steps back, the past will be the
unavoidable destination.

Staying the Course

In the same week pollster Nate Silver warned about a dangerous decline
in Hillary Clinton’s once massive lead against Donald Trump, Bernie
Sanders started to campaign in earnest for his recent rival. Mr. Sanders
is no more a fan of Hillary Clinton now than he was during the
democratic primaries, but he knows that ensuring a Clinton victory is
the only way to ensure a Trump defeat. This is not the election to waste
one’s vote on a third party candidate or stay at home, Mr. Sanders told
his sceptical supporters; the only option is to mobilise, to defeat
Donald Trump and push Hillary Clinton into becoming the best president
she can[vi].

In 2015, we in Sri Lanka defeated our version of the Trump clan.

We didn’t get rid of corruption and nepotism and all the other
horrendous practices which flourished under the Rajapaksas. But we have
better governance than we did during the Rajapaksa years.

Take the constitutional making process, which is more open and more
inclusive than anything Sri Lanka has previously experienced. Be it new
constitutions or amendments to existing one, every past effort had been
top-down ones where leaders decided what should be done and imposed
their decisions on the people. In stark and commendable contrast, the
new government is encouraging a broad public discussion about the nature
of the new constitution.

This new openness has brought into the open issues which had languished
in the outer darkness despite their seminal importance. One such case is
secularism. The arguments made by Ceylon Rationalist Association in its
1970 memorandum to Minister Colvin R de Silva for a secular democratic
constitution are even more relevant today than they were then[vii].
Incidentally, the provision giving Buddhism the preeminent place was a
fairly recent addition, introduced in 1972 and reinforced in 1978. There
was no such provision in the constitution until then, and Buddhism not
just survived but also thrived despite the absence. In this context, it
is apposite to remember that state patronage or special protection by
rulers figure nowhere in the conditions mentioned by the Buddha in the
Maha-parinibbana Sutta as necessary for the welfare and growth of the
sasana[viii].

Another encouraging instance of hitherto taboo issues coming into the
open in the new enabling environment is that of the campaign wages by
progressive groups such as the Women’s Action Network (WAN) against
Article 16.

Article 16 of the 1978 Constitution upholds, in its entirety, the Muslim
Marriage and Divorce Act of 1951. One of the many egregious results of
this is that Muslim women and girl children are, denied by the
constitution, several key constitutional rights and protections enjoyed
by non-Muslim women and girl children. For instance, though the minimum
age of marriage for Lankan girls is 16, a girl child from a Muslim
family can be married at 12, or even below with consent from the Quazi
courts[ix].

According to media reports, traditional Muslim political and religious
leaders are opposed to any change in the Article 16 even though many
Muslims countries have enacted laws criminalising child marriage
(according to UN sources, in Algeria, Bangladesh, Jordan, Iraq, Malaysia
and Morocco, the legal marriageable age for a female is 18; in Tunisia
it is 20[x].).
This issue has now been placed on the public stage, not as a divisive
slogan or a racist slur, but as a serious topic of discussion, thanks to
the open and inclusive nature of the constitution-making process.

This week Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa met the Chief Incumbent of
the Malwatte Chapter with a tale of horror about a new constitution. The
Mahanayake reportedly advised the parliamentarian not to succumb to
paranoia or propagate phobia since the constitution-making process has
been open and transparent so far.

Mr. Weerawansa cannot heed the advice. He and his Rajapaksa masters have
a future only if Sri Lanka succumbs to the ills of the past. It is only
if Lankan people return to the mire of paranoia and phobia and Lankan
leaders ignore science, abandon sense and embrace superstitious cures
and dictatorial solutions, the Rajapaksa dream of regaining power can
become reality.